Google, Search Privacy, and You

If privacy is a concern for you, you probably already know that most search engines tend to track and record your habits online. Google has been known to track and utilize user data, but they say it is only to make the search process easier and more efficient. But what information do search engines take, and for what reason?

As we mentioned earlier, Google claims to store only “non-personal” information, and does so only to improve search quality and to “build helpful innovative services.” This means that they use cookies to keep track of your preferences, track your IP address, browser type, and other such info. With their new privacy policies, they also track your information across every Google site, including YouTube. This means that Google most likely have a detailed profile about you that includes your interests, gender, age, and preferences. Don’t believe us? Check your Ad Preferences. Luckily you can edit this page, for now.

Sadly Scroogle, a privacy-first search engine, has recently died. But there are other search engines out there that don’t take your private information and store it. If you are worried about how your information may be used for ads, try out Startpage (returns the same results as Google) or Ixquick (meta search engine using results from multiple search engines). Both of these promise not to track your information, and don’t seem to have any plans on doing so.